Now I know why .......

..... I don't like to tat doilies when they are made in rounds. They warped and bowled up like nobody's business.

Remember my earlier post about starting on a doily? This is where I have reached until now. Actually it is not much from where I stopped before. Just another two rounds of rings and chains.

Can you see how much warp it has. No? Here is another picture taken with elevation


I tried pressing it under a heavy book overnight. It worked for the first few rounds but not the last two rounds. I unpicked the last round and added extra stitches to the rings but it did not improve the situation one bit, urrgghhhhh!!!! And it is such a beautiful design, *sigh*

My conclusion is, large doilies made in rounds don't click with me .... unless..... I design the doily myself, .. ha .. ha ... ha

As usual, when faced with frustrations such as this, I turned my focus to something else. This time it is knitting. Yes, I used to knit, but the last time that I held knitting needles was over 30 years ago.

My youngest girl asked me to knit a cardigan for her. She was so sure about it, she had already made a search for a pattern on the internet. *sorry - I can't give a link to the picture of the cardigan here because the site is taking too long to load* This is as far as I got up till today,


This is the lower part of the body. Instead of knitting from bottom edge upwards, the cardigan is formed by knitting the body sideways round the lower part of the body. Then, there is a yoke for the upper part followed by the sleeves. Luckily the stitches used are only garter stitch and stocking stitch. After 30 years of NOT knitting, those two I still remember how to do, :-).

At least I am getting some satisfaction with this cardigan. After the hard time with the doily, I still don't know what to do with it, :-(

Comments

  1. Well done on the knitting front! A buckled doiley is so frustrating as you can't see it coming as you are doing the round. Looks as if it would be lovely.

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  2. Sorry about that doily. That is heart breaking! I wish I had a magic idea to fix it, but I don't.
    The cardigan is going to be lovely. I can't believe you haven't knitted in 30 years and in such a short time, you have accomplished this! Yes, I can. You are Jon!

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  3. Jon, I don't know how to tell you this except to just say it... You're NOT "special" when it comes to doilies, LOL! EVERYONE'S looks like that and THEN you have to block them, LOL!
    You're being WAYYYYY too hard on yourself!

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  4. The doily would make a perfect skirt/dress for a doll....

    Wow, you have gotten so far on the cardigan in such a short time. I have NO talent in the knitting department.

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  5. I hate it when that happens! I tried to tat a vintage pattern a few years ago, a very OLD pattern, which looked great in the photograph, but did nothing but bowl for me. I tried various remedies....all failed. And it's a lot of work and thread down the drain.

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  6. I recently saw a doily that was made into a pin cushion because it didn't lay flat. You just make a round pillow from velvet or silk and then tack the doily over the top of it and you will have a beautiful pin cushion =)

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  7. Tatskool, Gina, the doily pattern is from a Japanese book and it does look lovely in the photo.

    Tattycat, it is just knit all rows, two rows where there are 'holes' in them. I still remember 'knit' and 'purl', so it wasn't difficult.

    Tattingchic, that is just it, I try to avoid the need for blocking. I aim for that with my designs.

    LadyshuttleMaker, Paula, I will give your ideas some thought to salvage the doily.

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  8. A little soak should do it. I just hate blocking too though! I've had that problem with a lot of the celtic doilies I've tried, I can't get the rounds to match up.

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  9. If you don't want to block it how about using the iron because that helps too. Put a cotton cloth a little wet between the doily and the iron and press it into shape.
    Lovely cardigan.

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  10. Sorry about the doily. There is nothing more frustrating than to put all that work in and it doesn't lay flat!
    Your knitting is lovely and your daughter is very lucky you are doing a sweater for her.

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  11. hi Jon!

    i've found that pulling sideways along the too-tight round can relieve some of the buckling, but that looks like a _lot_ of buckling. makes me wonder just how they did it the first time!

    dani, the geek

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